The works in the collection are driven by a concern with connection—to nature, to others, or to our own mortality and spirituality. The natural world is a recurring motif in CWO’s writing, and the poems keep returning to the idea of resurrection: cycles of life, death, and rebirth.

In voice and tone, CWO’s poetry is meditative, restrained, plainspoken, not unlike that of her poetic heroes Mary Oliver and Kay Ryan, with perhaps a bit of Eastern-influenced American Transcendentalism sprinkled throughout. There is also kinship here with such contemporary poets as WS Merwin, Lucille Clifton, and Andrea Cohen, all of whom use few words and simple language to create deft leaps in thought.

All of the poems in​ “Soft Animal”​ ​were written over the course of the last half of CWO’s twenties, and the writing echoes her own growing awareness of change, of time, of distance; the naiveté and sensitivity of youth giving way to a more reflective maturity.